History of Childhood!!!

Google key word search for websites relating to the history of childhood:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/childhood/
http://www.open2.net/theinventionofchildhood/childhood_inventions.html
http://www.elizabethi.org/uk/essays/childhood.htm
http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/research/clusters/history_childhood/

Summary of BBC

The website is made up of 6 episodes, dating from the 11th century to now, by the presenter Michael Morpurgo where he covers the invention of childhood. In the first episode, Michael explores the stories of medieval British Childhood like the arrival of Chirstianity, Normal Conquest, the Black Death and the introduction of printing affecting the children up until the 16th century.
   The second episode is from the 16th to the 17th century. This is when he looked at how children fared in the wake of the Protestant Reformation such as the impact it would have on the child's self-esteem. He also finds out about the growing educational opportunities for boys and the diminishing chances for girls in the 17th century and the impact of the Poor Law on disadvantaged children.
   The third episode is from the 18th century where Michael speaks of the first Foundling Hospital, the impact of 2 great parenting gurus and their battle over the nature and purpose of childhood.
   The forth episode is from the 19th century where Michael recalls the profound impact of the new Public Schools on children from better backgrounds while other children worked in mills, mines and living off the street. All before compulsory schooling in 1870.
   The fifth episode from the 20th century where Michael explores the impact of the Empire on children, the ones in Britain, the ones sent away to start new lives in Australia and Canada, and the ones who came from elsewhere to settle here and make new lives for themselves and their families. He also traces the surprising story of three how wars ultimately benefitted british children, leading to the establishment of our Welfare state.
   In the sixth episode Michael brings his story up to the present where he traces how the immense economic and cultural changes of the last fifty years has affected the lives of british children.

Here are some extracts about the history of childhood also from the Open University:

Ideas about the nature of childhood and about how best to bring up a child have changed in significant ways over time. It’s true that at any one point in time we can find people disagreeing about these issues, but in most periods of the past there have emerged dominant modes of thinking about childhood. We can think of these as inventions of childhood, new ways of imagining the key features of childhood.
The most significant of these inventions as they affected Britain I’ve described in six main sections. We should not, however, assume that parents necessarily followed the advice they were given. Quite often those who were setting out ideals were all too aware that day-to-day parenting differed sharply from what they regarded as best practice.